Holy Synod Statement

On Tuesday ,
November 11, 2008, after Holy Hierarchal Liturgy and the invocation of the Holy Spirit at the Cathedral Church in Belgrade begins formal sitting of the Holy Assembly of
Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Holy liturgy is beginning at
6.30.

All bishops of
the Serbian Orthodox Church from Homeland and abroad will attend this supreme
hierarchic representation and church legislative authority in
affairs of faith, service, church order, internal ordering of the Church and
supreme judicial power in its competence.

At the end of
its work, The Holy Assembly of Bishops will publish Communique.

The Serbian Orthodox Church on Tuesday called for a quarrel between two of its senior officials in Kosovo and Metochia to cease, saying unity was vital at a moment when Serbs there were going through difficult times.

A Synod of all archbishops convened in Belgrade after Bishop Artemije dismissed vicar Bishop Teodosije, the head of the Kosovo and Metochia's monastery Visoki Decani last week.

The members of the
Holy Synod of Bishops [of the Serbian Orthodox Church], escorted by an Italian
KFOR contingent, arrived yesterday in the holy lavra of the Peć Patriarchate
Monastery, where they held their fifth regular session this year, having first
served Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Holding today's
session in this patriarchal seat and ancient spiritual heart of the Serbian
Orthodox Church is a sign of the Church's concern for its holy shrines and its
faithful in Kosovo and Metohija, who were addressed with words of encouragement
and paternal love in this period burdened with suffering and new trails.

Following yesterday’s people’s protest and the prayer service held for the salvation of Kosovo and Metohija, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church called upon the entire Serbian orthodox people to intensify their prayers for the deliverance of our people in Kosovo and Metohija, for peace among us and in the whole world, in these times of extreme hardship.

During its extraordinary session
held at the Patriarchy on the 17th of February 2008, the following statement on
the latest developments in Kosovo and Metohija was issued by the Holy Synod of
Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, aimed at the national and international
public:

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church expresses its profound concern because of the astonishing violence accomplished by the Macedonian State and Church authorities against His Eminence Metropolitan of Veles-Povadarje and Exarch of Ohrid Kyr John, as well as against other clergy and faithful people of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid.

In this violence, unfortunately, also participate - by its statements and behavior - chief representatives of the State authorities of the Republic of Macedonia who interfere directly in exclusively ecclesiastic matters. These people claim, on one side, that they pass ecclesiastic matters on the responsibility of the Church, while then again they put openly and publicly themselves on side of the schismatic organization, called the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which was even so created by the former communistic regime by interest. That kind of hypocritical relationship towards the Church, leads Macedonian State authorities into suppressing basic human and religious rights what culminates in imprisonment of Metropolitan John in the town of Bitola. Hereby the Macedonian State authorities together with the Orthodox hierarchy of the MOC (which is not recognized by anyone in the Orthodox world) participate in befooling the people that Metropolitan John and other members of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, allegedly are "Serbian mercenaries" and "traitors" of their people. Time will prove and the very truth witnesses: these honored people only bring their Church and their people back to the eucharistic unity and to all other straight unity with all Orthodox Churches and people in the world, becoming liberated of being for many decades excommunicated of this community and isolated. People who judge and persecute for something what - according to a healthy-minded person - gives honor to a Church and people, can only be people who have spiritually a contracted horizon and who have lost sensibility for justice, for a true sovereignty of a Church and for a just dignity of a people.